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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28176276">The World in Colour</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sturms_sun_shattered/pseuds/sturms_sun_shattered'>sturms_sun_shattered</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Rito Chronicles [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Combat, Friendship, Gen, Huddling For Warmth, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Mention of blood, Rarepair, Unrequited Love, brief injury description</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 00:40:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,836</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28176276</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sturms_sun_shattered/pseuds/sturms_sun_shattered</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Gesane ended things, he vowed that he and Guy would remain friends, but things were too complicated.  Gesane committed to the loneliness, but Guy doesn’t want to live life without his best friend.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gesane &amp; Guy (Legend of Zelda)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Rito Chronicles [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1757296</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>LoZ Writers' New Year Exchange 2021</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The World in Colour</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeathByStorm/gifts">DeathByStorm</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Takes place between Chapters 28 and 29 of <em>Age of Intolerance</em>, has no bearing on that fic.</p><p>Thank you to the most excellent beta <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/acacias">acacias</a>!!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gesane stood with the other warriors in the Flight Range lodge, the pale afternoon of late winter not fully lighting their faces, though Gesane knew his fellow warriors even in the grey.  Across the dim lodge, Guy glanced in his direction.  Gesane quickly returned his focus to where Teba stood near the opening to the landing, assigning flyovers.  Gesane would never admit it aloud, but he had been avoiding Guy since the fateful night that they—that he—had ended things between them.</p><p>“Gesane, I need you to fly out to Strock Lake,” Teba said.  </p><p>“I thought we were no longer engaging in these lengthy expeditions,” commented Harth, a lingering acid in his tone as he leaned back against the railing.  “Isn’t that why we’ve all but dismantled the training program?”</p><p>“This is a survey mission,” clarified Teba, not looking at Harth.  “You are not to engage with anything.”</p><p>“Right,” Gesane agreed.</p><p>“We need to have a better idea of the migration patterns of the lizalfos on the southeast road between the lake and the stable.”</p><p>“That’s a long flight,” pointed out Gesane.</p><p>“You have the night to prepare,” said Teba. “You’ll set out from Revali’s Landing at first light.”</p><p>“On my own?” Gesane pressed.  </p><p>Gesane had no qualms about being on his own, in fact, it was something he had grown used to in these past years since he had lost his mother.  He lived in the spartan roost of a lone warrior, took his meals alone, and stood his watch alone.  But, even Gesane had to acknowledge, this was a dangerous journey to make without another warrior.</p><p>As Teba glanced between Mazli and Guy, Gesane wished he had said nothing at all, not knowing whose company he least desired between the two.</p><p>“Guy.  You’ll accompany Gesane,” Teba said at last, and Gesane swore that even through the bleakness of the weak afternoon light, he could see Guy’s eyes glimmer with a smile.</p><p>As Teba assigned the rest of the warriors to their duties for the coming quarter-moon, Gesane stood, dreading what Guy might say when Teba called a close to the session.  Perhaps Teba might reconsider and pair him up with one of the older warriors, though Gesane was unsure how he might convince him.</p><p>“Good hunting,” Teba wished them, and the warriors set out to home or their duties.</p><p>Guy once again caught Gesane’s eye across the lodge.  He looked as though he was about to cross to Gesane’s side, but hesitated.  Perhaps Gesane’s expression was warning enough, because Guy offered only a brief wave, his face tight, before he set out back to the village.</p><p>When none remained in the lodge save for Gesane and Teba, Gesane approached the First Warrior.  Teba—reticent as ever—didn’t acknowledge his presence with words but a rumble in his chest.  Though Teba had never shown him any particular animosity, Gesane was never quite certain where he stood with him.</p><p>“I wish to request a change of flight partners,” Gesane said finally.</p><p>“You and Guy are well-suited to such a long flight together,” Teba said indifferently.</p><p>Gesane shook his head in protest, and Teba’s brow furrowed.</p><p>“Is there something you wish to tell me?” Teba pressed.</p><p>“No, it’s fine.  It’s alright,” Gesane backtracked quickly.  </p><p>He wasn’t certain how Teba might react to hearing two of his warriors had been habitually sneaking off to the mountains to be with one another away from the prying eyes and gossiping beaks of the village, but Gesane was nearly certain that it would be frowned upon.</p><p>“Then perhaps you ought to prepare for your journey,” said Teba.</p><p>“Right,” Gesane agreed grimly.</p><p>Gesane leapt into the updraft that howled up from the Flight Range basin, and rode it to its height.  The world below was cloaked in that terrible monochrome of late winter.  The snow that iced the stacks and the mainland around it had grown sunken and dirty.  The stable yard was a muddy black spot in the colourless world below.  The sun, shining weakly through the clouds, was failing, bringing the early darkness to curtain the land.  </p><p>Even the village was dark and grim in this miserable season.  As Gesane set down on the landing, the boards beneath his feet were slick with ice, slippery from having melted a little as the world hovered on the brink of warmth, and refreezing as the temperature dropped with the coming evening.</p><p>With a sigh, Gesane set out for his roost to pack for the survey.  Once there, he could not bring himself to make his way back up to the cooking pot, nor share in the meal of another.  Instead, he ate dried berries, seeds, and fish, preserved in the light of the summer before.  He lit only one lantern as he filled his waist-pack with dried rations, flint, and a set of spare leg wraps (as his mother had taught him).  The little sphere of light from the side-table was all he needed as sat at the back of his small roost to sharpen his blade.</p><p>Gesane used to do these things with Guy, he recalled grimly, as he drew the whetstone over the edge of the blade.  For a moment, Gesane thought to ask Guy to come over so that they might prepare for their journey together, but that hardly seemed appropriate, given that Gesane had asked him to stay away.  Guy had respected this, but Gesane wondered if it had really made their parting any easier.  At least Guy could return home to his parents and sister, Gesane thought bitterly as the cold wind whistled through his roost, the light of the lantern making the shadows dance along the rafters.</p><p>Finishing with his feathered edge, Gesane returned the blade to its cured leather sheath and set it with his pack, quiver, and bow.  He extinguished the lantern and stripped off his cuirass before he pulled himself into his swinging hammock.  Drawing his rough-spun blanket up to shield himself from the wind, Gesane closed his eyes and tried to focus on sleep—first light would come soon enough.</p><p>---</p><p>Sunrise came, not with the golden sparkle of wonder breaking over the mountains that hemmed in Rito Territory, but with the whisper of white through unending clouds, its weak glow painting the world in that same grim shade of so many days in the past moon.  As he plodded up the boardwalk, Gesane could think only that this might very well suit the apprehension in his heart.</p><p>When Gesane arrived at Revali’s Landing, Guy already awaited him, and Teba stood by to see them off.</p><p>“I will await your report by nightfall,” Teba told them.</p><p>“We’ll have it,” promised Guy optimistically.</p><p>“Remember, no engagement,” Teba reiterated.  “It’s entirely possible that these monster colonies have no knowledge of our existence.  We don’t want to alert them to our presence.”</p><p>“Right,” agreed Gesane.</p><p>“Go safely,” Teba bid them.</p><p>The flight was not a punishing one, save for its tedium.  They followed the southeast road from the stable, the dark, muddy trail scarring the snow and leading them on.  Below them, they passed a traveller headed west on a dark horse, a burly man whom Gesane had seen enter the village on a few occasions, though he could not recall his name.  The man had spoken of the dangers of the road with a boastful smile, though the weapons he carried were blunt and badly forged by Gesane’s observation.  Why he would travel for such meagre trade on such perilous trails, Gesane could not fathom.</p><p>“They haven’t rebuilt the colony,” Guy said, pointing out the blackened, crumbled structure at the mouth of the pass.</p><p>Gesane only murmured his agreement.</p><p>“That’s good at least,” Guy attempted.</p><p>Gesane couldn’t bring himself to respond.</p><p>Below, the plateaus on either side of the pass were covered with the crisp blanket of snow, untouched by the trampling feet of horses and Hylians, the road scoring a line between them.  Gesane thought he caught a glint of metal deep between the rock faces—more foes for which they had to account.  </p><p>By the time they had reached the other side of the pass, it was midday, and the clouds remained heavy in the sky. The bridge that the Hylians had built a few summers past appeared slick and dangerous, but it was not what Gesane and Guy had come to observe.</p><p>“Goddess, they are thriving aren’t they?” Guy commented grimly.</p><p>The lizalfos reposed in the valley beneath the bridge—at least a dozen of them, though even Gesane’s keen eye was fooled by the camouflage at that height.  More seemed to appear as he stared below, their swivelling eyes betraying the lizalfos’ positions.</p><p>“We ought to move on,” Gesane said.  “Teba wanted to know what was on the road beyond.”</p><p>As they set out above the road to Tabantha Bridge Stable, Gesane spotted a colony that had rebuilt on the hill.  The rickety boards appeared to be pilfered from the decayed bridge that the Hylians had discarded, and worn furs lay frozen where the creatures slept.  They had flown too close, and Gesane could already hear the sentries’ crude horns baying alert.</p><p>“We have to leave,” Gesane insisted, dodging the explosions from bomb arrows that pelted the ground below and filled the air with smoke and bits of frozen earth.</p><p>Guy only coughed in response, having breathed in the sulphur and debris as he wove through the tall spruce trees.  He tried to wipe his eyes and weaved dangerously near the rachitic structure of the colony.</p><p>“Guy!” Gesane shouted, but could see no choice but to dive into the fray after him.</p><p>Around them, wood cracked and bombs went off, the heat of the fires in the fallen trees blowing them upward.  Unable to see or catch his breath, Guy was forced to land, and danced inelegantly away from the flailing spears as he choked on the ash in the air.  Instinctively, Gesane unslung his bow to see to the foes that surrounded Guy, but the haze of smoke and soil made it all but impossible to see his targets.</p><p>Recovering himself, Guy drew his feathered edge and shielded his beak with the back of his wing as he fought back the bokoblins which swarmed him.  Gesane attempted to pick them off, but the smoke burned his eyes and his arrows landed far too close to Guy.  With a resigned huff, Gesane flew into the eye of the chaos to cover Guy’s back.</p><p>The snow beneath Gesane’s feet had turned to mud in the flaming heat, and he nearly slipped.  Recovering his footing, Gesane drew his blade to parry the blunt bat that swung for his face.  He felt Guy’s back against his and nearly stumbled.</p><p>“Guy, take off!” Gesane shouted over the porcine squeals.</p><p>Guy could not speak over the paroxysms in his chest, but pushed off and took flight.  Gesane followed, arrows flying close enough to ruffle feathers.  Guy’s pained screech rent the air, and Gesane’s heart nearly stopped as Guy faltered in flight for a moment before he caught himself.</p><p>“Get to the other side!” Gesane shouted.</p><p>Though unsteady on his wings, Guy somehow managed to follow Gesane’s direction, the flurry of arrows no longer able to reach them on the unmarred snow atop the plateau above the pass.  The pristine smoothness of the world’s white blanket was scattered and muddied by Guy’s landing, a sprinkle of red droplets burning a bright trail in the snow. </p><p>Guy collapsed on his tail feathers, breaking through the snow’s sintered crust.  Still coughing, Guy stretched out his leg awkwardly, catching himself with his wings as he floundered.  Seeing Guy’s feathers fluffed in agitation, Gesane landed beside him, the snow crunching beneath his talons.  </p><p>“Where’s the blood from?” Gesane asked.</p><p>“Guess,” panted Guy, his voice laced with aggravation.</p><p>Gesane’s eyes finally caught the black fletching on the shaft of the arrow, protruding from Guy’s thigh.</p><p>“You do seem to attract these,” said Gesane as he crouched beside Guy.</p><p>“Don’t touch it!” Guy choked, gripping Gesane’s wing so hard that Gesane actually pulled back.</p><p>“I’m not,” promised Gesane, taking the sooty hand that squeezed him.  “Keep calm.”</p><p>“I’m trying—” Guy coughed, “—my best.”</p><p>“We’re out of the smoke, take a breath,” Gesane instructed, concerned Guy might faint.</p><p>Guy squeezed Gesane’s hand hard and wiped at his irritated eyes.  Gesane barely felt any calmer than Guy appeared to be, his stomach churning at the thought of even looking at the arrow.  As Gesane gripped Guy’s shoulder, he vowed to take it slowly for his own sake as much as Guy’s.</p><p>“I can’t believe this happened again,” Guy said squirming uncomfortably.</p><p>“Don’t think about it.  Tell me about anything else.”</p><p>“Tell you what else?” Guy complained, clearing his throat and coughing a little more.</p><p>“How is your...sister?” Gesane attempted.</p><p>“You’ve no interest in my sister!”</p><p>“Guy, you need to calm down.”</p><p>“You tell me how calm you are when you’ve an arrow—”</p><p>Guy trailed off, staring at the arrow’s shaft, his expression growing glazed.  Gesane put a wing beneath his beak and forced Guy to look up at him.</p><p>“Stop,” Gesane told him softly.</p><p>As Gesane held Guy’s gaze, he realized it was the first time in several moons that they had been so close, and Gesane withdrew his hand.  Something of the surprise of their exchange must have settled Guy, as his breath seemed less choked with panic.</p><p>“I can’t fly like this,” Guy said finally.</p><p>“I know,” Gesane agreed grimly.  “You have to let me look at it.”</p><p>Guy nodded shakily, his braids swinging.  As Gesane knelt down to examine the wound, Guy gripped his upper wing, hard.  Gesane made no move to stop him.</p><p>Gesane carefully lifted back the feathers stained with blood and debris and saw that the arrow had not merely sunk itself into Guy's thigh, but jutted through to the other side.  Guy had been unlucky—a feather’s breadth to his right and the arrow would have missed him completely—but it had not struck bone or lodged without exit, and Gesane counted that as a small mercy.</p><p>The arrowhead was one of their own, sleek and well-forged, though the shaft was of the sort they usually collected from bokoblin camps.  Gesane shuddered to think of the filth that it carried.</p><p>“Guy, do you trust me?” he asked, his voice soft and hoarse to his own hearing.</p><p>“That’s difficult to answer given our recent history,” Guy tried to joke, but it came out just as flat as Gesane’s voice.</p><p>“The arrowhead is through.  I’m going to remove the shaft,” Gesane said, barely believing it himself.</p><p>“No no no no no,” Guy protested, grabbing at Gesane’s wings once more.</p><p>“What would you have me do?” Gesane asked, holding Guy’s hands as consolingly as he could.  He had always been so much worse at this sort of thing than Guy.</p><p>“Get Saki!  Get anyone!”  Guy begged.</p><p>“Guy...”</p><p>“You can’t take that out!”</p><p>“We can’t leave it in.  And it’s too far to leave you on your own—I wouldn't be back until well after nightfall.”</p><p>“Gesane!” Guy protested.</p><p>Guy was scared, Gesane realized, though he was not certain he would be any less afraid in similar circumstances.  Not knowing what else to do, Gesane took Guy’s face once more, smoothing the sooty feathers on his cheek.</p><p>“It will fester.  The longer we leave it, the worse it will be.  You know that.”</p><p>“I don’t want to bleed out,” Guy said, his voice laced with panic.</p><p>“You won’t.  I won’t let that happen,” Gesane promised.  “Sit still.”</p><p>“Where are you going?” Guy pleaded as Gesane stood.</p><p>“To prepare.”</p><p>Fearful though he was of leaving Guy on his own when he was so afraid, Gesane knew that they would likely be left here until Teba saw they were missing.  Gesane perched along the edge of the pass and stared down into the path below where he thought he had seen a glint of steel.  Sure enough, a lizalfos camouflaged itself in dun, its swivelling eyes catching Gesane’s sight.  </p><p>It had a brutal weapon, serrated and crudely forged, but it was the metal shield which interested Gesane.  Checking his surroundings for more foes, Gesane drew his bow.  The reassuring creak of the old wood as he nocked an arrow was suddenly frightfully loud as he targeted the creature below.</p><p>Guy needed him, Gesane reminded himself, focusing all of his concentration on the task at hand.  He loosed the arrow, and the lizal let out a throaty grunt of protest before it fell to pieces.  Without a second thought, Gesane dived into the pass to catch the metal shield in his talons.  Around him, a second lizalfos squawked in anger and hurled its vicious boomerang in his direction.  Gesane had been prepared for that as well, and swooped quickly out above the pass with the snatched shield.</p><p>Below, he could see others awakening in the pass, their chatters echoing between the rock faces as Gesane glided back to Guy.</p><p>“Why have you stolen a shield?” Guy asked.  “Are you trying to bring those creatures upon us and hasten our deaths?”</p><p>“Trying to prevent our deaths,” said Gesane.</p><p>Gesane cleared away some snow and stood to pick the dead branches from the lower limbs of the ice-covered spruce trees which grew short at this elevation.  With the flint from his pack he set a fire, and arranged three rocks around it.  As the fire grew stable, Gesane balanced the upturned shield above it.  Guy watched in silence as Gesane piled snow into the shield, his face set grimly.</p><p>“You don’t have to do this,” said Guy as Gesane rifled through his pack.</p><p>“What else would I do?”</p><p>“You might return to the village if you had any sense.”</p><p>Gesane pulled the clean leg-wraps from the pack and heard Guy’s noise of derision.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“You are so particular about that,” said Guy.  “Why can you not just tolerate a little dirt on your leg-wraps?”</p><p>“I don’t like the cold to soak through when they get wet,” Gesane said defensively.</p><p>“Goddess, you are strange.  What did I ever see in you?”</p><p>Gesane was struck silent, the fabric of the wound wrap resting heavily in his wing.  He couldn’t say for certain what Guy had seen in him either, though it hurt to hear it said so bluntly.  When they had ended things, Gesane had hoped they could remain friends, but Guy seemed unable—or unwilling—to set aside the past for long enough that they might rebuild something.</p><p>“Perhaps nothing,” Gesane mumbled finally, carefully sloshing the melting snow around in the hot shield.</p><p>“Gesane, I didn’t mean—”</p><p>“I know what you meant,” said Gesane darkly.  “I still won’t leave you here on your own.  We took an oath not to abandon our fellow warriors.  Whatever else we may have been, that still remains.”</p><p>Gesane unrolled one leg-wrap and bound it around Guy’s thigh.  Gesane tied it off so close to the hip that Guy pulled back a little in surprise, though Gesane had been careful to avoid contact with anything sensitive.</p><p>“You are badly misreading this,” Gesane told him.</p><p>“Be a little more careful,” said Guy tautly.</p><p>Gesane ignored him as he looped a stick through the fabric and turned it once.  Guy winced as Gesane took his hand and pressed it over the stick.</p><p>“Hold this.  If it bleeds a lot we’ll stop it with the tourniquet,” said Gesane.  “Hopefully we won’t need to.”</p><p>Guy nodded, the hand on his leg shaking.  It had been many years since Gesane could remember seeing Guy this frightened, if indeed he ever had.  </p><p>“It’ll be alright,” said Gesane, holding his shoulder to steady him.  “Lie on your side.”</p><p>With an indignant huff, Guy stretched out in the upset snow to give Gesane a better view of the arrow.  As Gesane stabilized it, preparing to break off the shaft, Guy gasped in protest of the contact.</p><p>“Hatchlings complain less,” Gesane chided.</p><p>“Quit trying to inf—<em>Goddess, fuck</em>!” Guy screeched as Gesane broke the shaft as near to the wound as he could manage.</p><p>“Who’s going to bring the lizalfos down upon us now?”</p><p>“Is it out?”  Guy asked, his eyes tightly clenched.</p><p>“If I say yes...”</p><p>“<em>Gesane</em>...”</p><p>“Take a deep breath.”</p><p>Guy breathed in and Gesane gripped the arrowhead and pulled the little that remained of the shaft through the flesh with a quick yank.  Guy’s litany of obscenities tapered off into a pained moan as Gesane pressed the remaining leg-wrap over the wound.  It wasn’t bleeding badly, and Gesane was grateful for that at least as he encouraged Guy to put pressure on the wound.  </p><p>“Are you alright?” Gesane asked.</p><p>“I wish it had gone through my heart so that I could no longer feel it...though you hollowed that out perfectly well,” Guy said petulantly, still lying in the snow in unbearable wretchedness. </p><p>“I refuse to talk about it when you’re like this.”</p><p>“You refuse to talk about it at any time!”</p><p>“What remains to discuss?” asked Gesane as he checked on the water, still not boiling, though fully melted and growing hot.</p><p>“You said we would remain friends, but you’ve ignored me all winter.”</p><p>Gesane exhaled slowly, unable, it seemed, to dissuade Guy from this course.</p><p>“Why, Gesane?” Guy pressed, as he pushed himself up on his elbow, wing still pressed over the wound.</p><p>“Because you can’t separate the two!  Friendship and...” Gesane trailed off.  “And you’re to marry in the summer!  How does it look if we’re seen to be carrying on?”</p><p>“Speaking to one another is hardly carrying on!  Why must you always worry so much about what you <em>think</em> everyone is saying?”</p><p>“It’s not about that,” said Gesane, refusing to look back at Guy and instead, watching the tiny bubbles begin to ripple the water in the upturned shield.</p><p>“Don’t be so opaque!  What part of each other have we not seen by now?”</p><p>When he glanced back at Guy it was to see him sitting awkwardly, his legs spread wide to keep his balance as he pressed on the dressing.  His feathers were still fluffed, his chest rising and falling with rage, much as it had in ardour.  Seeing him like that, Gesane thought what a fine distinction it was—pain and pleasure, anger and passion.</p><p>“I wish you could understand,” said Gesane.</p><p>“Goddess, there is <em>nothing</em> I’d like more than to understand!”</p><p>Gesane squatted by the fire in silence, refusing to be provoked into anger.  As the water boiled in the upturned shield, Gesane moved it to rest in the snow to cool, the action earning him a bit of scalding on his wing.  As he placed his hand into an untouched bit of snow to cool it, he turned back to glance at Guy.  Guy’s eyes bored into him, his brow furrowed, though Gesane could not discern whether he shook from intensity of feeling or the injury.</p><p>Ignoring Guy’s anger, Gesane checked that the bleeding had stopped before he flushed the wound with the cooling water.  Guy sucked in his breath, but the complaints had ceased, and Gesane imagined this was simply Guy being petulant. As Gesane unknotted the tourniquet and bound it around the wound to hold the makeshift dressing in place, he similarly offered Guy no soothing words.</p><p>“I told you that I don’t share your feelings,” Gesane said finally as he grew uneasy in the silence.</p><p>“And yet, here you are, caring for me instead of returning to the village for help.”</p><p>“As I would for any warrior fallen this far from safety,” Gesane reiterated.</p><p>As the afternoon grew darker, the cold winds whipped the snow about, the icy shards cutting at Gesane’s eyes as he searched the sky, though he knew Teba would not yet have sent anyone after them.  Gesane offered Guy some of his rations, but Guy could not seem to eat or drink much.  Seeing how Guy’s wings shook, Gesane found he did not have much of an appetite either.</p><p>“Are you cold?” Gesane asked.</p><p>“I’m very light-headed,” Guy admitted.</p><p>Gesane checked the bandage.  The dark fabric was stained with the initial bleeding, but by all appearances the flow had long since stopped.  Still, Guy’s feathers were fluffed and he shivered where he sat.</p><p>“Come closer to the fire,” Gesane insisted, taking Guy’s wing over his shoulder.</p><p>“<em>Ah</em>,” Guy choked as he stood.  “This is worse.  This is worse than an arrow through the wing.”</p><p>“It’s because you’re cold.”</p><p>“It’s because it’s <em>worse</em>,” Guy hissed as he settled by the fire and wrapped himself in his wings.</p><p>As he shuddered, Guy’s misery cut to Gesane’s heart.  Knowing he might later regret it, Gesane settled himself behind Guy and tentatively wrapped a wing around him.</p><p>“What is this about?” asked Guy in alarm.</p><p>“You’re injured and you’re cold.  Let me warm you,” said Gesane stiffly.</p><p>“Aren’t you worried this might be too complicated for me to understand?” Guy asked darkly.</p><p>“Don’t.”</p><p>Guy leaned into Gesane, his shoulder against Gesane’s chest as Gesane drew him near.  Reluctantly, Guy rested his head on Gesane’s shoulder, his forehead pressed to Gesane’s neck.  How strange it was, Gesane thought, that this was what he missed about their time together—the comfortable silence of holding Guy in his wings, of being held in turn...it was all the rest he couldn’t seem to abide.</p><p>They sat in silence like that as the sky grew dark around them.  Gesane reached out only to feed the fire before he wrapped Guy once more in his wings, gently smoothing the back of Guy’s wing as he gasped at the sudden movement.</p><p>“I’m sorry...that I’ve avoided you,” said Gesane softly.</p><p>“I know,” whispered Guy.  “I was being a vent.  I have no cause to.  And I do understand...as much as I wish it wasn’t so.”</p><p>“I want for us to be friends—as we used to be, before everything else got in the way,” Gesane said.</p><p>“I told you I could do that, and I meant it...though I think the promise loses some of its integrity when you’re playing with my wing like that,” Guy said reluctantly.</p><p>Gesane had barely noticed that he had fallen into the old affectionate habit of toying with the coverts on the back of Guy’s wing.</p><p>“Perhaps the line is harder for me to draw than I had thought,” Gesane admitted, ceasing to trace the trails through Guy’s feathers.</p><p>The silence dragged on once more, the world cloaked in the strange glow of winter, the moon shining out from the breaks in the cloud cover.  Guy shifted uncomfortably in Gesane’s wings, drawing in a sharp breath as he jostled his injury.  As he grit his beak, Guy held onto Gesane’s wing with a bruising grip.</p><p>“It’s alright.  Saki will have something for the pain,” Gesane reassured him.  </p><p>Guy nodded against Gesane’s shoulder, burying his face in Gesane’s neck.  Gesane squeezed Guy’s wing in what he hoped could not be misinterpreted as anything other than support.</p><p>“I’m so lonely without you to speak to,” said Guy finally.  “The other warriors are so closed...that’s all I want, Gesane—that we might speak again and overcome...<em>this</em>.  Have we not had enough time on our own?”</p><p>“Yes,”said Gesane in a register barely above a whisper.  Goddess, how grey the world had become when he was left to himself.  “I want that too.”</p><p>In spite of this, neither seemed to have anything to say.  Gesane wished he could feel happy to have his dearest friend returned to him, but healing the fractures would take time.</p><p>As the night stretched on, the winds pushing the clouds east, Guy drifted drowsily on Gesane’s shoulder.</p><p>“You were right though,” said Guy hoarsely.  “I needed the time to sort things out.”</p><p>“I know.”</p><p>“But what is this?” Guy muttered sleepily, his beak pressed to Gesane’s furcula.</p><p>Gesane held his breath for a moment, not entirely certain of how to answer.</p><p>“This is me keeping you safe,” Gesane said at last.</p><p>“I’m grateful,” Guy whispered.</p><p>“I’m on watch,” Gesane assured him softly.  “Close your eyes if you need to.”</p><p>Guy slept fretfully, awakened often by pain in his leg, but Gesane kept his promise and held him in his wings until the fire burned low and the earliest light of morning purpled the eastern sky.  The heavy clouds had passed them by in the night, and the dawn’s warm glow kissed the snows and turned them gold.  As the lustre of pink and apricot graced the world once more, Gesane wondered how he could have been lost in a world of such dark. </p><p>The western sky was still the colour of overripe wild-berries, but the morning’s rays glinted from wings in the distance.  At last, Teba had come for them.</p><p>“Guy, wake up,” Gesane breathed, wing wrapped gently around the back of his neck.  “We’re going to make it out of this.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Dear Storm,</p><p>Happy New Year!!  I hope you enjoyed your gift &lt;3</p><p>-Sun</p></blockquote></div></div>
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